Dover-Sherborn Letters to the Editor: Support Article 22 at Sherborn Town Meeting

Thursday

Apr 20, 2017 at 12:01 AM

Warrant Article 22 calls for all candidates for office on the Sherborn Board of Health, as a local extension of state law, to complete the state’s disclosure statement of conflict of interest at the beginning of any campaign.

Warrant Article 22 calls for all candidates for office on the Sherborn Board of Health, as a local extension of state law, to complete the state’s disclosure statement of conflict of interest at the beginning of any campaign. Present law requires that only those elected to office must file this statement prior to taking office. Because Sherborn is one of only a few communities out of the 351 in Massachusetts whose water and soil can be particularly and adversely stressed by both artificial and natural means, it is particularly important to the larger Sherborn community that all members of the Board of Health be able to deliberate, review and render decisions on all matters brought before it, rather than have any members not share equally with others on the board the vital business of the Board of Health.

The purpose of Article 22 is to maximize for Sherborn voters, in the interest of a more fully informed electorate, information on candidates prior to election to Board of Health office. Disclosing conflict of interest does NOT prevent anyone from running for office, nor does it prevent anyone from voting for the candidate, nor does it limit any candidate to any specific set of credentials for office. It is up to the individual voter to decide to what, if any, extent any stated conflict of interest will influence their choice of candidate.

The AC has voted with abstentions “no action” on this article, reasoning that requiring up-front disclosure of conflict of interest constitutes a “restraint” on the candidate and that candidates for other town offices are not now similarly “constrained.

How such disclosure constitutes a “restraint” is not explained, nor is the relevance of such to other town offices explained. Up-front disclosure is in the interest of all voters and that interest, I submit, credibly supersedes any issue of “constraint” upon a candidate. Please vote “YES” on Article 22.